Westward Ho - Flagstaff





Early Flagstaff meant Lumber Jacks and Choo Choo Trains



I really love Flagstaff: about 7000 feet elevation, close to Grand Canyon, tons of history, small and homie.   Actually, it reminded me of Asheville....  old buildings turned into little eateries.   Small business owners......F;agstaff has far more dogs escorting humans around the town.




Ken's Favorite Hobby

 

Flagstaff as a frontier town suffered many fires to the point that in the late 1800's a law was passed that all buildings had to be of brick, stone, steel.   Thus the Weatherford Hotel was built and is the standing point of many of our photos.
John Weatherfor bedded many famous people.  Zane Gray wrote "The Call of the Canyon" while staying at the Weatherford Hotel.
A third story Ball room was added.
Today you can rent a room but it maintains some of it frontier features....no television and no telephone.

On Sunday, we took a trip to Walnut Canyon National Park.

Neither of us walked the entire trail to the bottom of the Canyon but Ken did go further down than I did. 

The Walnut Canyon is a beautiful history lesson.  We saw the dwellings of the Sinagua people who lived in the region before 1250.

Sadly, in the 1880's pothunters removed many Sinagua possessions.   They also dynamited some of the cliff-dwelling walls to allow in more light for their search.



There is evidence that the Rimtops were flat areas with soil for farmland.  They would have lived on prickly pear cactus, wild grapes, elderberry and yucca.  There is evidence they had black walnuts.  They also hunted for deer, big-horn sheep and other smaller animals.

It is believed that the women built the homes made from shallow caves eroded out of the limestone cliffs. 



Walnut Canyon National Park







Downtown Flagstaff





Landmark of Old Town Flagstaff -- Lumber and trains